Entering the decisive month of February, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool ice hockey teams both knew that they had to quickly turn things around.
The Northstars traveled to Fulton last Monday night, where its offense again went quiet for long stretches and it took a 3-1 defeat to the Red Raiders.
A Fulton turnover led to a C-NS goal by Matt Cramer in the first period, but that was all the Northstars could produce.
The Red Raiders tied it in the second and then, a three-minute stretch of the third period, twice found the net, Derek Schumaker as the focal point since he scored one Fulton goal and assisted on the other two, by Kevin Van Buren and Freddy White.
A far bigger factor, though, was the way Red Raiders goaltender Jadon Lee stopped everything C-NS threw at him, earning 51 saves to carry his team as Jordan Miller got 22 saves for the Northstars.
Two nights later, C-NS was at New Hartford, where it engaged in a wild, back-and-forth battle that dragged into overtime before the Northstars fell to the Spartans 5-4.
Tyler Murray got C-NS in front midway through the first period before Robert French tied it and Aidan Elbrecht converted with 10 seconds left in the frame, giving New Hartford a 2-1 edge.
The deficit grew to 3-1 before the last minute of the second period, where Holden Sarosy scored with 25 seconds to play and, a mere 15 seconds later, Murray converted again, tying it 3-3.
Again it fluctuated in the third period, the Spartans retaking the lead on John Syrotynski’s goal, C-NS pulling back even when Braylen Tuff found the net with 3:56 to play in regulation.
But in the five-minute OT period, Syrotynski returned and sent a shot that just eluded Kaii Van Iuven and past the goal line for New Hartford’s game-winner.
With no turnaround, C-NS had to come back to the Twin Rinks Thursday to face Fayetteville-Manlius, and were far better on defense, yet still lost 2-1 to the Hornets.
A first-period goal by Logan Bucher was matched by F-M, who then inched in front in the second period and hung on the rest of the way.
Miller took his turn in the net and had 27 saves, only allowing goals to Mike Hockenberger and Josh Kuchinski as Jake Johnston had 20 stops for the Hornets.
Liverpool would avoid these ups and downs when, in its only game of the week, it traveled to Ontario Bay last Tuesday night and, carried by Connor Boland on one end and James Welch on the other, put together a 3-0 shutout of the Storm.
For a while, Boland’s first-period goal was all that could get managed against Ontario Bay goalie Julia Holister, who finished with 19 saves, but in the third period Boland converted twice more for the hat trick.
On each of those three scoring plays, Matt Gagnon got an assist, with Anthony Bentley adding an assist as the Storm had its fair share of chances, but saw Welch amass 25 saves.
Then the Warriors were off until another trip north on Wednesday to face Watertown IHC, the prelude to a showdown between Liverpool and C-NS Friday at the Twin Rinks, the Northstars having won 5-3 when they first met Dec. 20.
